Story: Pitfall Harry, legendary explorer, heads to the jungles of South America with an expedition crew led by Doctor Bittenbinder. Also on board is Nicole McCallister and while Harry chats it up with her, the plane enters the storm and soon winds up crashing into the jungle floor, with our hero winding up in the clearing away from the plane. After meeting up with Bittenbinder, he agrees to help search for Nicole and the other explorers and soon winds up in a bigger adventure than he initially expected.

The Good:+/- Story goes from finding the other explorers of the party to finding El Dorado. It depends on your taste.+/- Humor and dialogue can be hit or miss at times, but it's pretty good overall as it hits the mark more often than not. A particular bit that stands out is when you first get to the Native Village.+ A nice cast of characters, particularly a certain few.+/- The mini games are alright, but you wouldn't be going back to them time and time again. Except if you want to get all the idols.+/- There's quite a bit of backtracking, but it's countered by transporters and shortcuts, and the fact that it's an Action/Adventure game.+ Controls are nearly perfect (A bit more on the negative part of it later).+ How the adorable baby monkeys will leap towards you to hug and cling to you. Love that bit.+ Effects and lighting are quite good, and definitely help add to the atmosphere.+ The setting and scenery overall is nice and at times, absolutely amazing.+ The surroundings are good looking, from the jungle to the icy mountains of the north and the caverns.+ Absolutely amazing musical score. Definitely one of the best parts of the game.+ The voice overs are pretty good, but the native jive talk might get tiring after a bit. Gotta give props to the explorers though.+ The presentation of the menu system is amazing. Just like an old, ancient book one would find in the ruins (If there were any of the kind back then)+ To simply put it, the game has charm.+ Bonus unlockables include Pitfall! and Pitfall: Lost Caverns for old-school junkies.

The Bad:- Sometimes when you jump to a platform and hit the edge, Harry sort-of slides on it instead of grabbing on.- The downside to the controls is the camera, which is controlled with the L/R triggers or holding both down and using the C-Stick to look around.- The map system is a pain to use.- If you go straight through without trying to collect all the Idols, it'll be more like a 5 to 6 hour adventure, but full out then it's nearing the 10 hour mark.- Overall on the easy side.

Score: 8/10, I remember playing this when I first got my Gamecube (Didn't have a memory card to start with) and loving it. Replayed it once or twice as well. Traded it years ago and just got it back recently, and it's like time went back to when I first got it. A diamond in the rough in the GC Action/Adventure category and one that shouldn't be missed, regardless of it's length or difficulty. Gave it a bit more because of the nostalgic feeling; not the old-school nostalgic, but that of not having played a game that I fondly remember for so long.

Story: A new Chaos Emerald is found, and before Sonic can get it, a boarder by the name of Jet appears and takes it from him. Sonic soon finds out that Dr. Robotnik (Called Dr. Eggman or simply Eggman here) is behind the thievery and challenges Sonic and his crew to a series of racing events (Grand Prix) to win it back.

The Good:+ Can get pretty intense when you're going fast, barreling down the tracks. Great sense of speed at times that can remind one of F-Zero GX. That's how good it can get.+/- Trick system is simple and not overly complex. Reminds me of the SSX series, but not nearly as good.+/- Good racing and trick system overall, but not exceptional in either.+ Riding the turbulence of those ahead of you. Not only is it cool and helps you catch up to them, but gives you air (Used for boosting, launching tornadoes behind you as a form of defense) when performing tricks while riding it in the process.+/- Some pretty sweet track designs, quite good overall, but some can be an absolute pain in the ass.+ Shortcuts for each class (Speed, Flying and Power), and others for all classes. Sky Road especially...+ A variety of racing modes, including the usual (Story, time trial, free race (Single race), grand prix) to character missions that are unlocked as the story progresses and as you complete the missions themselves.+/- Controls are nearly spot on, but the turning is kinda rough and sometimes you go so fast that it might be a bit tricky to nail those corners. And you might accidentally hit a pit stop, killing your speed and time.+ A pretty sweet intro, the animation is reminiscent of a good Saturday morning cartoon from older days.+/- Graphics are serviceable, but nothing special as a lot of parts do look kinda blocky.+ No framerate drops, which is nice considering the high speed.+/- Depending on your taste, the music is either awful or cheesy to the point that it's decent. Kinda reminds me of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle's music; enjoyable in a cheesy way. But it does suit the game.+/- Voice overs are laughably bad and a lot of the time lack decent emotion and feeling. The only reason why it's not simply a minus is that it suits the game, just like the music.+ Secret characters to unlock, a Gear shop to clean out, other extreme gear to unlock, and extras that include being able to see the cutscenes you've unlocked and the ability to listen to the game's cheesy music.+ Practice makes perfect, just like all the other racing games; not overly easy and still provides a good enough challenge.

The Bad:- It's a racing game. It's a Sonic game. It's a Sonic racing game. You know what to expect for the story. And any sort of character development.- Wish there were more tracks.- If you run out of air and forced to hop off your board, you're screwed.- Kinda the fact that at times the game tells you to turn sharply, either at a 180 degree turn with sharp corners (90% corners specifically) or at certain corners that lack guard rails on the outer edge.- No feature to create your own gear.- What happened to the days where he was called Robotnik?

Score: 7/10. I have to admit, I love my Sonic games and getting into racing ones. It's been a while since we've seen a Sonic racing game (Last I recall is Sonic R for the Saturn (?) and PC), and this should suit one's fix. It's still better than some of the stuff Sega's been putting out in the Sonic franchise, but not really close to the best. It reminds me of F-Zero GX, in it's sense of speed and partially to track design and of SSX, in it's boarding and trick system.Music isn't as cheesy as SA2:Battle though.

Better Than: Sonic R

Worse Than: F-Zero GX, SSX 3, SSX On Tour (Based on what I played in the past)

Time Spent: 35:41:13(From start to current position)- Completed the main story- All of Fay's Puzzles Solved

Story: As a Wanderer, it's your quest to find the Golden City in the Plains of the Sun, on top of Table Mountain. That's it.

The Good:+ Another roguelike to add to your DS library, and this one's one of the best on the system.+ Fay's puzzles is a great addition to the main story and can be done whenever you're in Canyon Hamlet. Not are you learning loot, but tips/strategy on how to survive.+ Dialogue is humorous at times.+ Optional events/side quests also play out throughout your runs, which can lead to some pretty sweet payoffs.+/- You can get teammates over a course of numerous runs as well. They are good at the start, but become monster chow in the latter levels (In the main storyline, in this case. Automatically in the bonus dungeons.+/- Monster Houses. One of the three: You're dead, you slaughter them all or you're dead.+ A sweet selection of weapons, shields and armbands to be found. And all the other stuff.+ With the storehouse and the right weapons, after upgrading them and using the Melding Jar, you'll have equipment you can truly be proud of.+ The storehouse. Without it, this would be so much harder.+ The adventure log, keeps track of your highest stats, various deaths and other little tidbits.+ The graphics are nice and easy to look at, and don't feel too crowded or overcomplicated.+ Music really works with the game's setting, even though the theme for the Monster House still creeps me out.+/- Being sent back to the first village, with nothing in your pockets and back to level 1 after each death. It's quite delightful. Even though it might be a plus depending on your perspective... and it is. You'll soon see why.+ Rescues, you'll be glad of them being available someday.+ Post-game dungeons that make the main story look like a cakewalk.+ This is without a doubt one of the toughest RPGs and games in general on the system. It only cuts you some slack with the Herb of Revival, Storehouse Jar and the Storehouse itself. But on the flip side, those two items are rare and what you leave behind, you can't bring with you on that run. But the difficulty is what one should expect from a roguelike.+ If you enjoy this sort of game, then it'll be a long while before you beat it. Loads of replay value for you masochists.

The Bad:- Story? Screw that. This shit here's a roguelike.- You can only hold so many items, so item management plays a large role. Even with Holding Jars, you might run into situations where you can't carry everything.- Not much to the sound effects, but it's not like they're that important in a game like this.- Skull Wizard + Spells + You = You screwed.- You know that Plated Katana+18 you died with? You ain't getting it back. And that's a pain that will linger.- No matter how good you are, how far you plan ahead, the game will take you down. And it will hurt. Badly.

Score: 8/10, I'll admit, I played it for 12 to 13 hours,and on my run, was brutally taken down at the end due to various status effects. I gave up on the game and came back a year or so later. 25 hours later and I beat it through item management and sheer luck with my crap equipment. That's what it's all about: Death, pain, misery, determination, patience, defeat, despair, and eventually, victory. And luck. The game's fueled by it.You aren't playing this for the story, nor the graphics or sound, but for the gameplay. It's a roguelike, and that alone determines if you're in the group that will enjoy this type of masochistic RPG or the majority that will find it too hard. If you want a challenge, then Shiren's here to quake that thirst.

Time Spent: (will be edited in shortly... writing this on the Wii coincidentally)- Completed the game as much as possible (luigi ghosts, 9999 star bits and coins, all stars)Story: Bowser has once again invaded the Myshroom Kingdom and kidnapped the princess. Mario, using the help of the lumas and his newly acquired/borrowed "faceship," must travel through the many galaxies of the universe to find and defeat Bowser and save Princess Peach. Note: This game seems to follow the last game's ending in which the universe reset, as no mention of the events of the last game are made.

The Good:+ While the graphics haven't really improved per se,the game still lools great. The newer enemies and those that weren't in the first all look great and look just as you'd probably expect them to.+ All of the new power ups are useful, fun to use, and intergrated well into the levels.+ Luigi becomes available in random levels, and later can be switched to at will after beating the main story.+ The difficulty curve is good for most of the game, and its difficulty overall is higher than the first, which was criticized fpr being too easy.+ No clone galaxies like in the first game.+ Overall the galaxies are pretty original and fun.+ The faceship feels less empty than the hub, and more useful really, as you can practice with different power ups (usually) soon after you encounter them in the galaxies.+/- The new Fluzzard minigame that is used in two galaxies. The controls take a little getting used to, but ultimately it is an enjoyable experience.+ The boss fights are pretty cool and some are pretty challenging. The boss designs themselves are nice too.+ After collecting 120 stars, the green stars are unlocked, which match the amount of normal stars in each galaxy. The green stars are like scavenger hunts, some of which force you to look at the levels in new ways to figure out where they are.+ 242 stars to collect in the game.+/- Core mechanics are the same as the last game.+/- Purple prankster comets are no longer in all the main galaxies like the first game.+ The shadow Marios are pretty cool and add a nice challenge to the stars that include them.

The Bad:- Some power ups from the first game are absent in this one.- While there are no clone galaxies, the final world features parts of galaxies from the last game as full galaxies, and a sub level from Super Mario Sunsine. There is also a galaxy that is only bosses from the last game. There are only a couple of galaxies in world s that are original.- All the Bowser fights are the same, and are very easy. The final battle is a joke.- Not all prankster comets from the last game are in this one.- The final star in the game is incredibly frustrating to get for many reasons... though after trial and error, earlier parts of the level become trivial.

Score: 9.5/10 The game overall is great for everyone. The casual gamers can go straight for the 70 star mark and beat the game there if they want, and the more hardcore gamer can go for 120, then 240, and ultimately the final 2 stars if they wish. Highly recommended for platforming fans in general, must buy for Mario enthusiasts.Better Than: Super Mario Galaxy

Time Spent: 15 Hours to complete the game, only picking up items along the way, didn't backtrack to find more.

Story: Taking place shortly after the events of Super Metroid, and before Fusion, Samus receives a distress call entitled "Babies Cry" from a derelict space station known as the Bottle Ship. Upon arrival she realizes she's not alone, a Galactic Federation Army Drop Ship is stationed in the Docking Bay. She meets up with a group of Soldiers of Squad 07, comprised of Adam Malkovich, a General of the Galactic Federation Army, and the closest thing to a father Samus has ever had since her parents died at the hands of the space pirates, Anthony Higgs, an old friend of Samus, and the Point Man of Squad 07, K.G. Misawa, Recon Scout, Lyle Smithsonian, Demolitions Expert, James Pierce, Communications Expert, and Maurice Favreau, Engineer.Soon after they meet, Samus, and Squad 07 realize something bad has gone down on the Bottle Ship, your task is to find out what exactly is going, and trying to find any survivors of the ships crew.

The Good:+ Samus has never really had a personality in the previous games. Many people had their own ideas of what her personality. Well lets just say a great job was done on portraying Samus' personality in the game, she's not a hardboiled emotionless badass, she has human emotions and feelings, she can't always look death in the face and say "Bring it on", she even cries like anybody else would. Samus often reflects on previous moments in her life such as her time with Adam in the Galactic Federation, or when the Baby Metroid died at the hands of Mother Brain.+ The game looks great, a lot of cutscenes are done in-game, but you'll on occasion get really good looking CG cutscenes. The in-game graphics are really good looking too, lots of nice flare.+ Controls great, moving, switching to first person, shooting, and everything else works great using only the Wii Remote.+ Nice and long. Like I said above, I only gathered what items I could along the way, and in the end my completion time was at about 15 hours. If you go and search for items this will greatly increase the length of the game. There's a lot.+ Some awesome bosses. Some new ones, and some that'll surprise you.+/- Samus has a nice arsenal with her, power bombs, screw attack, grapple beam, plasma beam. Unfortunately, there isn't really a ton of new stuff. Your weaponry is mostly comprised of stuff from Super Metroid, the only new item is the diffusion beam. It's really not that big of a deal though.+ Lots of places to explore!+ Diverse enemies, you'll see zoomers, robot like things, bugs, all kinds of stuff!+ Samus has some new moves, you can do a dodge by pressing a direction just as an attack is about to land (You can't Dodge ALL attacks though), and if you time it right you can unleash a charged shot at your foe. You can also perform finishing move on the enemy, or jump on their head and blast them point blank for lots of damage.+ You can switch to first person by pointing the Wii remote at the screen to look around, find out how much health a boss has, and fire missiles. Upon going into first person with enemies around it'll momentarily go slow-mo, so that you can get a better shot in on the enemy. + Wall jumping is easier, and more frequent. The fact that's it's easier might not abide to all players, who preferred wall jumping when it took more skill, but I don't mind.+ The game is certainly challenging. Some bosses will really kick your ass!+/- There isn't multiple endings anymore, however, when you beat the game you unlock hard mode. And I have no idea yet if you get anything from beating the game on Hard Mode.+ One complaint players had about other metroid games was not being able to skip cutscenes on initial playthroughs (This complaint was mostly prominent with Fusion), well you can skip them on initial playthroughs now!+ Like any Metroid, this one has great music!

The Bad:- You don't really get to know any of the characters aside from Samus, Adam, and Anthony (As well as a few others whom I won't spoil).- The voice acting. It's not bad, it's OK. Some characters sound better than others though.- Fairly Linear. If you enjoyed Fusion then you won't mind, I didn't mind all to much, but some others might not like it. Towards the end the ship becomes fully explorable though.- Found navigation to be a bit tedious. On your map a marker indicates where you need to go, but your on your own for figuring out how to get there. - There are a few moments where your locked into first person, and you have to look at something specific by locking onto it. It can be hard to see what you have to lock onto at times. It can be a bit annoying.- Some of the writing is kinda meh.

Overall: 9.5/10. Metroid Other M is a phenomenal game, with a good story, fun and challenging gameplay, and lots to find after you beat it! I'd definitely recommend Other M to non-fans, and fans alike.

Story: As Ragnarok took place, Asgard was on the brink of destruction; of being overrun by demons of Utgard. In an act of desperation, they broke the ancient pact and created the Grim Angels, each wielding a Diviner, at the cost of their lives. They brought an end to the war and Utgard was named Riviera and a thousand years of peace reigned. In Riviera, rumors of the demon's return stirred and Hector, one of the Seven Magi, ordered Ledah, Ein and his familiar, Rose, to activate the Retribution, a divine power that would bring about destruction to the demons at the cost of Riviera.

The Good:+ Great story and writing, with quite a bit of comedy throughout.+ Part RPG, part Adventure, part Dating Sim, even though the latter is only through options in conversations.+ Game uses a Look mode and Move mode, with the former using Trigger Points to initiate actions in said mode. Some range from optional conversations that yield no items to actual items, key items and sometimes a hidden area. Refreshing for a JRPG.+ The characters are balanced, with no one being completely broken and are quite good overall, personality wise.+ Before starting battle, you can check out your opponents, their weaknesses/strengths to the elements and a bit of strategy aid you in the fight particularly useful considering how many teammates and items you can bring into battle.+/- You can't bring everyone on your team into battle, only three max with one always being Ein unless it's a practice battle. so there's some strategy there on who's best to win the current conflict.+/- Only allowed to bring four items into battle, which, like the above, adds to the strategy.+ Excluding Practice Battles, where items can be used infinitely there, and can only be broken/have their usage lowered by certain enemies.+ Overdrives, basically obscene powerful specials, particularly Level 3's or Ein's EXL. And love the VO's that accompany the Level 3's, particularly Fia's.+ Even the enemies have Overdrive skills, so there's more of a challenge and balance.+/- Mini-games for most chests and for some events. Which happens a lot.+/- Items from chests are mostly random, so you might get something you don't really need instead of something that helps out in an area you're lacking (A fire weapon or ice weapon, for example).+ One of the most beautiful games on the GBA. The backgrounds and event scenes are stunning...+/- ...but they repeat quite a bit, which is unfortunate. The Character portraits are gorgeous as well. Heck, the entire game is beautiful.+ VO in a GBA game? Absurd! Especially with the amount of VO. It's in bits and for certain parts only, but still impressive.+ Music is brilliant, nearly on par with the graphics.+ Some secret areas scattered about.+ Balanced difficulty.+ Multiple endings that depend on which girl loves you the most.+/- The multiple endings help out considering that it's only a 20-30 hour trip.+ Plenty of unlockables... if you find the right items, that is.

The Bad:- Leveling is done through weapons, and that's either done through battle or by a practice battle, and battles aren't done randomly, as they're set encounters.- Sucks that you can't target specific enemies.- A small inventory means you'll have to get rid of items you aren't close to using yet or one-shot uber items.- Good luck on getting all or most of the event items on that initial run.

Score: 8.25/10, because I was using an emulator, I was able to fast-forward a bit on the Practice Battles but was still slow going nonetheless because of them. The limitations of the battle system are annoying, but aid in the strategic aspect and prevent it from being overly easy. In other areas, the game excels. The graphics and music are top-notch, actual VO's that make the game that much better... if you can get past the annoyances in the battle system, you'll find quite the treat to satisfy your RPG fix on the go. This wouldn't change your mind about the genre though.

Length Spent Playing: 8 hours give or take, but I've got a reason why though that I'll explain later on.

Story: As to not give spoilers, I'll give just a very brief summary. So it's 2552 and the planet Reach is the last human colony that hasn't been destroyed by the Covenant. The planet Reach is actually home to the Spartan program so during the battle, many spartans were involved. As mentioned in the books, this is where most of the Spartan II's die, leaving Master Chief the only one (non-book canon wise) left as seen and talked about in Halo CE. Your character, now known as Noble 6 joins up with an elite team of Spartan II's and III's to go investigate strange incidents happening on Reach, which is the Covenant have found Reach and are attacking it.

Characters: As with most games, characters play an important part, and with Halo Reach as you are now a member of Noble Team, your teammates become very important characters throughout the story. - Carter: The leader of Noble Team - Kat: The Technical know how of the group - Emile: The CQB specialist - Jun: The Sniper - Jorge: The Heavy Weapons guy - And then you.

The Good: As to save time, it will be in point form.- The voice acting I found was very well done in this game- The animations in the game and cinematics were quite well done- The music, oh god the music. I'll have a better description of it down further- It gives you quiet a variety of things to do from Campaign, Matchmaking, Firefight and Forge. You'll always have something to do in the game- The armory system is really easy to use, and customization is done well, and even better now that your character model is used throughout the campaign as well, including cinematics- Same old great Halo story-telling. They do a really good job with the story on this one- Bungie has really taken everything they've ever learned from making a Halo game and rolled it all into one excellent package with Reach - The art was very amazing in this game, it was quite fantastic

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- The part where you escort Buck, aka Nathan Fillion!- The level Lone Wolf after the credits, which I think is just pure genius done by the Bungie team

As much as I'm sure I could go on with the pro's, lets see some cons.

The Bad:- The A.I driving isn't the greatest thing in the world- With Noble team, we get attached to a couple of the characters, but don't really see the same from the rest of the team- Some of the weapons seem a little over powered, or underpowered which sometimes seems the case- I like the different armor abilities, but sometimes they just get too annoying, specifically multiplayer in my case- The forge controls can be very iffy at times and frustrating

The Music: As a huge music lover, I find that the music in Reach is quite excellent, and the best Mr. Martin O'Donnell and Michale Salvatori have done in their long time partnership. The music does an excellent job of going along with what's happening in the game and giving it more emotion.

Score: All in all, I think I'd give this game a 9.5 out of 10. It's not perfect, but its pros really out weigh the cons. I'd highly recommend this game to anybody as it is a great campaign and a fun online section as well, whether its alone or with friends, Halo Reach is a great send off for Bungie to the Halo series.

Logged

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